Analysis: Cuevas-Neunder Gets Votes as “The Only Bilingual Candidate”

Posted September 11, 2014

In the Florida primary for governor, the winners were clear: Rick Scott and Charlie Crist.

Republican voters outnumbered Democratic voters in the primary: 952,864 people voted in the Republican primary and 838,914 in the Democratic primary. Rick Scott is the current Republican governor, and Crist, running as a Democrat, is the former Republican governor of Florida.

For those following the news about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, the Republican primary is particularly interesting. Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder, founder of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Florida and, in her own words, “the only bilingual candidate,” is from Puerto Rico. She volunteered during the 2012 plebescite.

Political insiders expressed surprise that Cuevas, with what the Florida Courier described as “no meaningful…budget,” took 10.6% of the votes. The Courier also described the votes for Cuevas as “a protest vote.”

A county by county look at the numbers shows that Cuevas received more than 10% of the vote in 41 of Florida’s 70 counties, sometimes significantly more. Some of the counties where Cuevas did well are shown below. Click the pie charts for larger images.

In Osceola and Orange Counties, which have the largest share of Puerto Rican residents in the state, Cuevas-Neunder garnered 13.33% and 12.45% of the vote respectively.

Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez Cantera, running for re-election with Scott, is also of Puerto Rican heritage, though he was born in Spain while his parents were traveling.

The chart below shows the performance of Cuevas-Neunder compared with the winner, Rick Scott, in each county.